Over 90% of our data center's electricity comes directly from Seattle City Light's hydroelectric dams in the Cascade Range. No greenwashing. No REC accounting.
Try the Ultra Carbon Footprint Calculator: enter your domain and see the estimated CO2 emissions per visit plus how much you would save by migrating to hydroelectric-powered hosting.
Open the CalculatorSeattle City Light's grid since 1905. No carbon offsets needed.
The servers that host your website at Ultra Web Hosting run on over 90% hydroelectric power from Seattle City Light, one of the greenest electric utilities in the United States. When you host your website with Ultra, your online presence is backed by clean, renewable energy rather than coal or natural gas.
This is not a carbon offset or a credit-trading arrangement. Our data center draws electricity from a grid that is directly supplied by hydroelectric dams in the Cascade Range. Seattle City Light has been generating hydroelectric power since 1905 and meets strict low-impact hydro certification standards. It is one of the few utilities in the country that can claim over 90% clean energy for its entire service area.
The actual electrons powering our servers come from hydroelectric dams along the Skagit River in the Cascade Range. These facilities are certified low-impact, designed to keep salmon runs and fish habitats intact while generating consistent baseload power 24/7/365.
See hosting plans →We run dense, efficient Dell servers we own and tune, so more sites run on less power - no wasteful over-provisioning, no rented cloud.
Our in-house US team racks and maintains the hardware in our own facility. Fewer middlemen, tighter efficiency, and a 12-minute average support reply.
The real-world differences between hydro-grid hosting and offset-balanced "green" hosting.
Seattle City Light generates over 90% of its electricity from hydroelectric sources. The remaining power comes from other renewables like wind and solar. This makes Ultra one of the greenest hosting providers you can choose without any greenwashing or creative accounting.
Many "green" hosting companies buy carbon offsets or renewable energy credits to claim green status while still running on fossil fuel grids. Our approach is simpler: the electricity that actually powers our servers comes from water flowing through turbines in the Cascades.
Hydroelectric power is one of the most reliable and cost-effective forms of electricity generation. It does not depend on weather conditions like solar or wind, and Seattle's extensive dam infrastructure provides consistent baseload power year-round. That reliability translates to stable hosting costs.
Most hosting companies that market themselves as "green" or "carbon neutral" do not actually run on clean electricity. They run on a normal fossil-fuel-heavy grid and then purchase carbon offsets or renewable energy credits (RECs) to claim green status on paper. This is creative accounting, not a clean grid. The difference matters for any business taking sustainability claims seriously.
The electricity flowing into Ultra's servers comes from hydroelectric dams in the Cascade Range via Seattle City Light. No offsets, no credits, no creative accounting. The actual power source is over 90% renewable, and you can verify it through Seattle City Light's published fuel-mix reports.
The provider runs on a fossil-fuel-dominant grid (often Virginia or Texas data centers heavy on coal and natural gas), then buys carbon offsets or renewable energy credits to balance the emissions on paper. The actual data center is still pulling from a dirty grid. The offsets fund renewable projects elsewhere, which has some value, but is not the same as running on clean power.
Hydroelectric energy without sacrificing anything else about the hosting platform.
Seattle's hydroelectric tradition dates back to 1905 when the city built its first hydroelectric plant at Cedar Falls. Seattle City Light later developed facilities in the Skagit River area that meet strict low-impact hydro certification, meaning the dams are designed to minimize ecological disruption to fish habitats and river ecosystems.
Green energy does not mean reduced features. You get the same shared hosting plans with cPanel, Nginx caching, CloudLinux isolation, free SSL, Softaculous one-click installs, and free website migration that every Ultra customer receives.
Ultra hosting customers can display a green hosting badge on their website to show visitors that their site is powered by clean energy. Copy the badge code below and paste it into your website's footer or sidebar to certify your green status.
Show your visitors that your site runs on Seattle hydroelectric power. Pick a design, copy the snippet, paste it into your footer.
ESG-ready hosting documentation.
If your business publishes an ESG or sustainability report, your website's digital carbon footprint counts toward your Scope 3 emissions. Most corporate sustainability teams have started measuring this, and many are caught off-guard by what they find when their site runs on a fossil-fuel-grid data center in Virginia or Texas.
Ultra customers can request a hosting sustainability statement on company letterhead documenting: our hosting infrastructure location (Seattle), the renewable energy mix powering our servers (Seattle City Light fuel mix: 90%+ hydroelectric, additional wind and solar), and an estimated CO2e per visit calculation for your specific traffic. Useful for your annual sustainability report, RFP responses, or any procurement question about your supply chain. Contact our team to request the documentation.
The questions we get most often about hydroelectric hosting, carbon offsets, and ESG reporting. If yours isn't here, drop us a line.
Yes. Our data center is located in Seattle, which is served by Seattle City Light. Over 90% of Seattle City Light's electricity comes from hydroelectric sources. This is not a carbon offset program; it is the actual electricity powering our servers.
Hydroelectric power generates electricity by using the force of flowing water to spin turbines. It is one of the oldest and most reliable forms of renewable energy. Seattle's hydroelectric infrastructure includes dams in the Cascade Range that have been operating for over a century.
No. Green hosting is not an add-on or upgrade. Every Ultra Web Hosting plan runs on the same Seattle-powered infrastructure. You get green hosting at the same price as any other plan starting at $3.95/mo.
Copy the badge code from this page and paste it into your website's HTML, typically in the footer or sidebar. The badge links back to Ultra and lets your visitors know your site is hosted on clean energy.
"Green hosting" usually means the host runs on renewable electricity directly. "Carbon neutral" usually means the host either runs on renewable energy OR has purchased enough carbon offsets to balance out their fossil-fuel-grid emissions on paper. The two terms get used interchangeably in marketing, but mechanically they are different. Ultra runs on direct hydroelectric power, so we are green by the strict definition without needing offsets.
Google has not announced a renewable-energy ranking factor. Page speed, mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, and Core Web Vitals are the primary technical SEO signals. That said, modern energy-efficient data centers tend to run newer hardware with better latency, and older fossil-fuel-grid data centers often correlate with slower infrastructure. The indirect connection holds, but there is no direct SEO bonus for renewable energy specifically.
Your website's digital carbon footprint is the total CO2e produced by hosting servers, data center cooling, network transmission, and end-user devices loading your pages. For most websites, the largest share comes from the data center where the site is hosted, especially if that data center runs on fossil-fuel-heavy grids. Our Carbon Footprint Calculator estimates your site's emissions and shows the savings from running on hydroelectric power.
All three are renewable. The main differences: hydroelectric provides reliable 24/7 baseload power that does not depend on weather; solar generates only during daylight; wind generates only when wind speeds permit. Data centers run 24/7/365, so a grid mix that includes consistent hydroelectric power is well-matched to data center demand. Seattle City Light's mix is primarily hydro (90%+) with additional wind, plus other sources for grid balancing.
Yes. Ultra customers can request a hosting sustainability statement on company letterhead documenting the renewable energy mix powering your site, useful for ESG reports, Scope 3 emissions disclosures, RFP responses, or procurement questions. Contact our team with your reporting needs.
Every Ultra plan runs on Seattle City Light's 90%+ hydroelectric grid. No extra cost, no add-ons, no offsets required. Starting at $3.95/mo with a 45-day money-back guarantee.
